The pageants will be held together on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013 at the Lewistown Elementary School on Manor Drive in Lewistown.

The Miss Central Pennsylvania and Miss Central Pennsylvania’s Outstanding Teen Pageants are preliminaries to the Miss Pennsylvania and Miss Pennsylvania’s Outstanding Teen Pageants both of which will be held in June 2013 in Pittsburgh.

The winners there will advance to the Miss America Pageant and Miss America’s Outstanding Teen Pageant, respectively.

To be eligible to compete in the “Miss” pageant, which leads to the Miss America Pageant, young women must be unmarried and between the ages of 17 and 24 and must reside, attend school or be employed in Pennsylvania.

In addition, contestants must be at least high school seniors. Last year almost $5000 in scholarships, prizes and awards was given to Miss Central Pennsylvania 2012 Tristalyn Bixler-Kint, Miss Greater Juniata Valley 2012 Amanda Pope, Miss Freedom Forge 2012 Jordyn Colao and their runner-ups in the Miss Central Pennsylvania Pageant.

All three titleholders won additional scholarship money as participants in the Miss Pennsylvania Pageant last June with Colao winning a Preliminary Swimsuit Award and being named Miss Pennsylvania, As Miss Pennsylvania, Colao will compete for the title of Miss America in January in Las Vegas.

No more than 25 contestants will be accepted for the combined pageants so those whose entry materials are received first will be named as contestants with those whose application materials are received after the first 25 being placed on a waiting list.

The only fee for entry into the pageant is that each contestant is required to raise $100 for the Children’s Miracle Network and deposit that money into a special online account. Details are available on the Miss Central Pennsylvania Pageant website at www.MissCentralPA.org.

To be eligible to compete in the Miss Central Pennsylvania’s Outstanding Teen pageant which leads to Miss America’s Outstanding Teen Pageant, girls must be between the ages of 13 and 17 and reside or attend school in Pennsylvania.

Contestants may be no more that high school juniors. Full details on age and grade requirements should be verified by contacting Executive Director John Metzger at (717) 248-5576. Last year three winners, Miss Central Pennsylvania’s Outstanding Teen Libby Hornstein, Miss Greater Juniata Valley’s Outstanding Teen Julianna Wardle and Miss Freedom Forge’s Outstanding Teen Emily Aita, were named in the pageant.

Scholarships and prizes are awarded through the generosity of businesses and organizations throughout Central Pennsylvania. Information and applications are available by phoning (717) 612-1912 in Harrisburg, (814) 695-4170 in Hollidaysburg or executive director John R. Metzger at (717) 248-5576.

Information and application materials are also available on the internet by going to the Miss Central Pennsylvania Scholarship Pageant website at www.MissCentralPA.org.